This invention is generally concerned with software databases of letter and parcel mailing addresses and more particularly with utilization thereof for correcting customer shipping lists.
Among the numerous software products available to the business community for use with personal computers, for expediting the implementation of complex business procedures, there are included databases of postal addresses for mailing letters or parcels to substantially all personal residences and business offices in the United States. Such software databases are known in the art as address "cleansing" or "sanitizing" databases, due to their being used by the business community to correct the addresses in their customer mailing lists to be sure that letter and parcel mail is properly and timely delivered to their customers. Aside from the customer satisfaction benefits which accrue to the business community users of such databases, as a result of avoiding slowed or failed deliveries of mail due to improper addressing, the U.S. Postal Service offers a monetary incentive to mailers who include the correct zip-plus-four code for a given mailing address on each letter mailpiece of a predetermined minimum number of letter mailpieces, known in the art as batch of mail, and a further monetary incentive to mailers who additionally print the correct bar code equivalent of the mailing address in an approved location on each of such letter mailpieces.
Given the aforesaid benefits and incentives, it is not surprising that the business community increasingly relies upon databases of mailing addresses for processing their customer lists to correct the addresses listed therein. On the other hand, due to their availability a relatively large number parcel shippers have attempted to use such databases for correcting the addresses in their customer shipping lists as well as their customer mailing lists. As a result, customer shipping lists having become contaminated with incorrect addresses, primarily due to the databases including mailing addresses which include Post Office Boxes to which parcel shipments cannot be made.
For example, assuming a shipper's customer shipping list includes the address "Pitney Bowes Inc., 35 Waterview Drive, Shelton, Conn. 06484", and the shipper attempts to sanitize its shipping list in order to add the zip-code. In practice, the database of mailing addresses and customer shipping list are processed in a personal computer programmed to make a comparison between the respective addresses in the database and shipping list and generate a sanitized customer shipping list which includes the proper mailing address. When this occurs the sanitized shipping list will include the address "Pitney Bowes, Inc., Box 3000, Shelton, Conn. 06484-8000", since the mailing address for Pitney Bowes' 35 Waterview Drive facility is a Post Office Box and not the facility itself. Accordingly:
an object of the invention is to provide methods and apparatus for utilizing a database of letter and parcel mailing addresses for cleansing both customer mailing and shipping lists; PA1 another object is to provide methods and apparatus for selectively using a database of letter and parcel mailing addresses, and an auxiliary list of parcel shipping addresses, for use in cleansing a customer shipping addresses list; and PA1 another object is to provide methods and apparatus for selectively using a database of letter and parcel mailing addresses for cleansing either a customer mailing addresses list or customer shipping addresses list.